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4 October 2011

ANHRI demands the international community to take speedy measures over the deteriorating situation in Syria

ANHRI condemns the silence taking over the international community over the deteriorating situation in Syria, which has amounted to assassination, detention, and referral to the prosecution against the activists and protesters.

The Syrian security authorities referred a number of activists, journalists, and filmmakers to the Public Prosecution following over 50 days of detention at the Political Security since the beginning of August. Among the detainees are Rudi Othman, a journalist, Omar Al-Asaad, a journalist, Hanadi Zahlout, a writer and journalist, Shady Abou-Fakher, film producer, and the activists Assem Hemsho and Guevara Said.

The detainees are charged with “inciting demonstrations and disobedience of the state in Damascus”, “contacting the protesters in the neighborhoods of Damascus to stir sectarian strife”, “organizing demonstrations and protests in the capital”, “founding an unlicensed organization entitled Committees of Damascus neighborhoods, and creating a page with the same title on the Internet”, “contacting satellite channels that conceal the truth of what is going on in Syria in a way that determents the reputation of the state”, and “contacting a political organization and suspicious individuals abroad”.

Moreover, Mansour Al-Atasy, an opposition activist and leader at the National Coordinating Committee for Democratic Change, was arrested in his office in Al-Khalidiya district in the city of Homs on 1 October by an Air Intelligence patrol. His fate is unknown until this day.

Assassination was not excluded from the scene in Syria. On 2 October, Mohamed Al-Omar, a history professor in the University of Aleppo, was assassinated while in a car with Sariya Hassoun, the son of the Mufti of Syria. The latter died of wounds afterwards in the National Hospital in Idlib.

“The ongoing repressive practices pursued by Al-Assad’s regime against the protesters and activists signal his desperate attempt to crush the revolution of the Syrian people by any means. Thus, he terrorizes his people by detention, prosecution, and assassination against their elites” said ANHRI.

“The responses of the international community towards the oppression that takes place in Syria, represented by imposing sanctions on a regime that has already lost its legitimacy are not enough, considering the deteriorating situation of a people peacefully demanding freedom. What is the international community waiting for to take serious positions supporting the Syrian people in their uprising against a dictator that sheds their blood, assassinates or prosecute their elites, and gag those who call for freedom of opinion and expression?” added ANHRI.

ANHRI demands an immediate investigation into the crimes committed by the Syrian regime that lost its legitimacy and holding those responsible, headed by Bashar Al-Assad, fully accountable.

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